Redkey v. Worthington

Citations

• 22 Ohio C.C. Dec. 63

Syllabus

<p>TRUSTS AND TRUSTEES.</p> <p>Instrument Transferrins Money to Trustee for Distribution after Donor’s Death, Providing for Appointment by Probate Court of Successor Upon Death of Trustee and Reserving Right to Revoke such Appointment, Makes Grantor Trustee Upon Delivery of Fund, Passes Present Title to Trustee, and no Revocation having been Effected, Right of Possession Tests in Beneficiaries at Donor’s Death.</p> <p>On October 14, 1905, J W being seriously ill, transferred by writing the sum of $6,200 to one M R as trustee to receive and hold and after the donor’s death, to distribute the same to designated beneficiaries therein named, in various amounts. The written instrument provided, that, if M R, the nominated trustee, should die, that the probate judge should nominate his successor, but reserved the right to “revoke this appointment at anytime” during his life. J W drew a check payable to M R, trustee for the amount, and said trustee deposited the same in bank in the name of himself as trustee for J W. Action by J W’s administrator to recover from M R’s executor the amount named as part of J W’s estate. The beneficiaries named in the instrument, by interpleader, also seek to maintain their respective rights to the fund: Held, (1) Under the terms of the instrument M R became the trustee for the beneficiaries therein named, and not the agent or trustee of •the. donor. (2) The written instrument was a valid declaration of trust and passed a present legal title to the trustee, under a trust to deliver the amounts named to the designated beneficiaries after the death of the donor. (3) The requirements and formalities of testamentary disposition are not necessary where the corpus of the property is transferred to a trustee by an instrument containing plain and unequivocal declarations of the trust and its uses, although its ultimate distribution is not to be made until after the death of the donor. (4) The power of revocation in the instrument is construed to - me